In eight quarters, the Chargers' quarterback has thrown only one interception.

It's no coincidence that the Chargers are now 2-0 for the first time under Norv Turner.

"Ultimately," Rivers said, "if you don't throw the ball to the other team, then you've got a real good chance of winning."

Interceptions give life to the other teams. Denied such oxygen save for one instance, the Raiders and the Titans, now a combined 0-4, were dead men walking against the Chargers.

For a team to win, it needs to learn how not to lose.

The Chargers cost themselves a playoff berth in 2010 by allowing other teams to block their punts and to run back kicks for touchdowns. The screwups cost the team's veteran special team's coach his job.

Last year the culprits were, in no particular order, Rivers throwing a spate of interceptions during a lengthy losing streak, Rivers fumbling away a victory in Kansas City and the Chargers' defense allowing third down conversions at a histrorically awful rate.

Norv Turner fired the defense's coach. He wasn't going to fire Rivers, but the quarterback got the message, it appears.

Other than a lob he threw to a Titans safety on Sunday, doing no harm to a 14-point lead, he's kept the ball out of enemy hands in 68 passes.

The Chargers went into the season opener knowing that their defense should be able to control the Raiders, who will need time to learn a new offensive system and trotted out a threadbare receiving corps.

Rivers played to that strength. He never threw the ball near anyone wearing silver and black last Monday night. When he moved through traffic while surveying downfield, he grasped the ball with two hands, like a farmer holding a piglet. If the Raiders were to get help, No. 17 wasn't going to give it to them.

The Titans arrived here Sunday with a rookie quarterback who'd never started on the road, a receiving corps short on talent and a running back, Chris Johnson, whose sharp decline is one of the NFL's mysteries.

Say this for Johnson. He knows garbage when he sees it. "We didn't look like an NFL team," he said after the Titans exited stage left, beaten 38-10.

There was no point in Rivers trying to fit passes into crowded areas, unless the game somehow remained close past the third quarter.

The Chargers, unlike a year ago, have a defensive front seven that runs deep with average or better talent. Give them a long field against a team like Tennessee, and the field-position game will be yours.

It's difficult to play keepaway in the NFL, and Rivers has done it in both games without the services of several mainstays in the offense or a reliable running game. Antonio Gates sat out Sunday's game, as did the opener's absentees, Ryan Mathews, Jared Gaither and Vincent Brown.

Rivers threw three touchdown passes to a journeyman and Chargers newcomer, Dante Rosario, who was cast off by both the Dolphins and the Panthers and left the Broncos last winter in free agency.

Once, Rivers created room for Rosario by diverting the Titans with eyes. Twice, Rosario wasn't the first option. "All three of those passes," Rosario said, "were in a place where the defense couldn't get it."

Rivers still has some wild cowboy to his game. He fumbled twice and was lucky that each was recovered by a teammate. The second fumble came after Rivers tripped over a teammate while dropping back to pass. Rather than stay on the ground with the ball, Rivers got up and tried to make a play.

Chatty Phil admitted he's not one to lie down. "Only at night for about seven hours," he said. "And sometimes, that's interrupted."

Two games into the season, he's dialed into an elusive bandwith. He toggled between careful and daring. He's completed 74 percent of his passes. He's put spirals into the hands of 10 teammates, compiling a 110.7 passer rating. He's prettied up an offense that's really not all that talented, at least until Gates and Mathews return.

"When you have a quarterback like Rivers who is very good," said Titans coach Mike Munchak, "he makes guys look good."